Education system 'can do better' says Civic Forum

The Civic Forum has said that Northern Ireland’s education system "can do better", according to their latest report.

The report, 'Can Do Better: Educational Disadvantage in the Context of Life Long Learning', is the product of months of research into education in Northern Ireland, and pinpoints gaps in life long learning that can further impede the educationally disadvantaged.

According to the Civic Forum findings, poverty, alienation and unequal treatment are among the common experiences of educational disadvantage in Northern Ireland.

Convenor of the Forum’s Life Long Learning Group, Jeanette Chapman, said the group had found that there was no single cause for educational disadvantage, or a single solution.

She said: “The education system inherited by the devolved administration needs a re-vamp as do all aspects of training, further and higher education. Underachievement is not hereditary, but is a legacy for too many in Northern Ireland.

"Our report shows that strides can be taken to improve education through innovative thinking and preparing to accept that learning is not something neatly slotted into a single department box to find solutions, but must permeate all departments of the Northern Ireland executive."

The Civic Forum report was formally presented to Minister in the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister, James Leslie; Minister for Education, Martin McGuinness, and Minister for Employment and Learning, Carmel Hanna at today’s launch.

Elsewhere, a National Statistics report into the rate at which post-GCSE exam pupils stay on in education has shown that local pupils remain ahead of their English counterparts.

While the survey into attrition rates of 16 and 17-year-olds in further education has shown Northern Ireland to be ahead, that figure has remained static at 72% over the past five years – for England that figure was 64.9%.

(GMcG)